Neurohacks to outsmart stress and make better cybersecurity decisions

Cybersecurity is one of the most high-stress professions in the world — and it’s only worsening. According to ISACA’s 2024 State of Cybersecurity survey, 60% of cybersecurity professionals say their role is more stressful than five years ago. The biggest cause? A more complex threat landscape, followed by budget constraints, staffing shortages, and retention challenges.

For those on the frontline of cyber defence, it’s more than just burnout — it’s a full-body response to a crisis. Neuroscientist and senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania Dr. Lila Landowski says the pressure that cybersecurity professionals feel mirrors life-and-death situations.

“It’s a bit like being a first responder,” she says. “It’s the same kind of situation but instead of dealing with a dying person, it can be a dying company. As far as the body is concerned, it’s the same sort of stress.”

Short bursts of stress aren’t necessarily bad. In fact, Landowski says the stress response is what allows us to reach peak performance. “It increases oxygen flow; it opens up your lungs, so you get more oxygen in your blood vessels… and the regions of the brain that allow you to deal with that challenge and thrive in that situation.”

But when this response becomes constant, the body and brain can begin to suffer.

“The longer you’re stuck in this fight-or-flight mode, it’s ultimately going to have a more negative impact on your body and brain. In fact, it changes every cell in your body — right down to the level of your genes,” Landowski tells CSO.

As Landowski explains, chronic stress alters the brain structure by shrinking the hippocampus, which affects memory and learning, and enlarging the amygdala, which fuels emotional reactivity. She also points out that the prefrontal cortex, the decision-making part of the brain, will experience a disconnect.

“You’ll be more emotional, but you’ll also be using less of that decision-making part of the brain, so you make bad decisions, your attention span reduces, and you’re more selfish because you can only see your perspective and not others,” she says.

In cybersecurity where clarity and composure are essential, particularly during a data breach or threat response, these changes can have high-stakes consequences. “The longer your brain is stuck in this high-stress state, the more of those changes you will start to see and burnout is just an extreme case of chronic stress on the brain,” Landowski says.

According to her, the tipping point between healthy stress and damaging chronic stress usually comes after about eight to 12 weeks, but it varies between individuals. “If you know about some of the things you can do to reduce the impact of stress on your body, you can potentially last a lot longer before you see any effects, whereas if you’re less resilient, or if your genes are more susceptible to stress, then it could be less.”

Socialise, label and move

One of the most effective ways to lower the stress hormone, cortisol, and release more oxytocin, often affectionately known as the love hormone, is surprisingly simple: socializing. But Landowski says cortisol levels will only lower when socializing happens face-to-face. 

“If you’re texting someone, you’re not getting that release of oxytocin — that only happens when you’re talking to someone face-to-face,” she points out. “If you’re actually with people in a group setting, and you’re all talking about something similar, we get this synchronization of brain waves … and that’s possibly part of the reason why hanging out in groups can be so good for you.”

Talking openly about it is also helpful. “Put a label on your feelings, because when you do, you reduce activation in that emotion processing part of the brain, so there’s less aggression and anger. For leaders in the workplace setting, it’s an amazing way of de-escalating conflict because if you ask someone, ‘How do you feel?’ the moment they put a label on it, you can see the relief they get from being honest about how they feel.”

Other stress-busting tools Landowski recommends include mindfulness meditation where just 13 minutes a day over eight weeks can shrink the amygdala and strengthen the prefrontal cortex, 20 minutes a day in green space, regular gratitude practices, and exercise. “Exercise is a physical stress on your body, which makes you more resilient to psychological stress, like stresses in the workplace.”

Think like a hacker

For neuroscientist, business professor at Columbia University, and former hacker Moran Cerf, the link between cybersecurity and neuroscience is instinctive. He points out that working in cybersecurity, particularly as a hacker, is often about understanding how people think and then spotting the gaps.

That same shift in understanding — tuning into how the brain works under different conditions — can help cybersecurity leaders make better decisions and build more resilient teams. As Cerf highlights, he works with organizations to identify these optimal operating states, testing how individuals and entire teams respond to stress and when their brains are most effective.

“The brain is not just a solid thing,” Cerf says. “It operates differently when you’re in different conditions; when you’re hungry versus full, when you’re alone versus with others, just before a deadline versus when you’re a few hours ahead. Once you know that, there’s the element of finding … the conditions that make a person’s brain operate and perform their best.”

He says this understanding can inform how CISOs divide tasks, assigning roles based on who thrives under which conditions, resulting in a reduction in burnout and a boost in performance. 

Stress isn’t the enemy — confusion is

Cerf, who once consulted global leaders on nuclear decision-making, says a key lesson from neuroscience is “we all like to believe we’re rational, composed, and logical thinkers, but rather our thinking is shaped by unseen assumptions, and the stories we tell ourselves”. That’s why Cerf urges leaders to challenge their own assumptions to help make better decisions under pressure.

“I tell CEOs to assume for a second that you’re wrong about the fundamentals. It forces you to see how others might understand how things would work, how competitors do things…and ask them to see how far you can stretch your thinking.”

Landowski and Cerf agree that stress in cybersecurity isn’t going away. But by understanding how the brain works — and taking small steps to support it — cyber leaders can build teams that not only endure high-stakes environments but excel in them.

As Cerf puts it: “The thing is to know when your stress is debilitating and you can’t do anything, and when you’re stressed, but you’re still productive. If you learn to manage that — for yourself and your team — to be in the sweet spot then you can get more out of it and [stress] stops being negative.”